Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 104 The beginning of Huaibei

On the morning of the eighth day of November in the first year of Taichang...

The cold wind blows from the sea and goes deep into the inland, and the hands and feet of the people on both sides of the frozen Huaihe River are cold.

But right now, compared to hands and feet, what is colder is the heart...

"Hurry up! Hurry up! Work hard for me, anyone who dares to be lazy will die!"

Huaibei, a place that has experienced hardships this year, is now falling with "heavy snow."

It's just that this heavy snow, compared to ordinary heavy snow, looks very gray...

"crunch..."

On the roads of Pizhou County, Huaibei, dozens of bonfires were placed almost every three miles.

Near the bonfire, dozens of people were carrying the corpses, putting the corpses on the bonfire and lighting them.

The so-called heavy snow is nothing but the flying ashes of tens of thousands of corpses.

Logically speaking, there is no need for the people to sacrifice their lives for such a government.

But for the people in Huaibei, they just want to live now.

Four days ago, the government in Pizhou, Xuzhou, Muyang, Suqian and other places suddenly started disaster relief.

They asked all the hungry people to wait along the road, and collected firewood to burn the corpses in the Huaibei area. Those who were close to the Huaihe River simply threw the corpses into the Huaihe River.

Due to the diversion of the Yellow River during the Northern Song Dynasty, the current south of the Yellow River moved into the Huaihe River, and then poured into the Yellow Sea in Huai'an Prefecture. Therefore, the flow of the Huaihe River and the Yellow River is enough to wash the corpses into the sea.

In order to survive, the hungry people took up the current business one after another.

Burn a dead body, reward three catties of food, ten copper coins...

This kind of work gave the surviving hungry people a way to survive.

They didn't know that the imperial court was sending officials from the Metropolitan Procuratorate to the south, and they didn't know that they were destroying evidence for these corrupt officials.

Perhaps, even if they know, they will still continue to do this business...

to live...

"What a crime! What a crime! The money and food in vain are given to the poor like this!"

An official at the head of the city of Pizhou, wearing the regular uniform of the fifth-rank magistrate, shook his head and sighed, and the faces of a dozen merchants next to him were also very ugly.

Although a great famine in Huaibei made them profit millions, something went wrong and they were stabbed to the capital.

Now they want to act, but they have to ask the tenants under their names to be searched by the government, and they have to spend food and money to destroy the corpses. In this way, they have made at least two million taels less!

Among the crowd, an older man in his [-]s frowned and said:

"Right now, we are sending out grain and money. If the court really wants to investigate, can we hide it?"

"Of course it can be concealed." The Huai'an magistrate turned around and comforted:
"The corpses were destroyed, and the civil registration and household registration in the Huaibei area were separated. No matter how they searched, they couldn't find anything."

"I just need your help right now, and that is to ask you to transport the granary grain in your respective warehouses to the official warehouses in various places."

"When the people sent by the imperial court leave, I will return them in full."

"This matter is easy to handle." The old man nodded, and the people behind did not object.

"In this case, thank you Li Juren." The magistrate of Huai'an thanked the old man with a smile, but the old man didn't reply when he saw this, but left the gate tower of Pizhou City directly with his people.

Seeing them leave one after another, the prefect of Huai'an also heaved a sigh of relief, then looked at the situation outside the city wall that had almost come to an end, and shook his head distressedly: "You made a crime..."

After all, he also led people down the city gate tower, and the Pizhou city below the city gate tower became bustling in just three days.

Of course, this kind of prosperity is compared with Pizhou City when Lu Jianxing and the others came here. If it is compared to other places, it can be said to be very poor.

Looking around, all of them are ordinary people wearing coarse linen clothes, and their cheeks are thin, their eye sockets are sunken, and their belts are so loose that they have to tighten their belts. The whole city is like a ghost city.

At the same time, in the private room on the second floor of a tea house in Pizhou City, Lu Jianxing was sitting at the table drinking tea, but a thin man glanced at the scene on the street from the window, then returned to his seat, and said indignantly:
"If this group of corrupt officials can manage Huai'an on weekdays with the skills they used during these four days, Huai'an Mansion would have become the most prosperous place in Ming Dynasty!"

Facing the man's indignation, Lu Jianxing remained calm, but secretly nodded in his heart.

In just four days, the corrupt officials in the Huai'an and Xuzhou prefectures in the Huaibei area first used food to enlist the hungry people to deal with the corpses of the starved people, and then distributed money to the people in the form of ten cents per corpse.

The purpose of distributing money is very simple, it is to make the people spend money, and create a false appearance in Huaibei area that the people have spare money.

The people in the Huaibei area are grateful to the Yamen for this incident, but they don't know that all this is directed and performed by the government.

It is said to the outside world that there is no serious hunger in Huaibei, and there is enough food for the people to eat.

As a result, the people who came in saw that there were bones everywhere, and there was no smoke.

A great famine in Huaibei, how many people starved to death?No one has a specific number in mind.

Even if Lu Jianxing himself is investigating these days, it is difficult to find out the specific death toll.

Thinking of this, he looked at the thin man opposite and said:

"Have all the corpses in the thirteen caves been hidden? Have you sprinkled them with lime?"

"Don't worry, shopkeeper, there are nearly [-] corpses in thirteen caves, enough for this group of dog officials to drink a pot!"

The man almost gritted his teeth and said this sentence, and after Lu Jianxing heard that the corpses were hidden, he no longer cared about this matter, but turned his head and asked:

"How much grain have we been selling one after another in the past few days?"

When it came to business, the man quickly replied: "The time is too short, only [-] shi were sold, and the price was [-] taels and [-] cents and [-] cents."

"Excluding the silver for buying food, I made a total of four hundred and forty-four thousand two hundred and sixty-seven taels, eight cents and two cents."

"The grain at the moment depends on these grain merchants to distribute grain, so that the grain on the market can be maintained at six cents a catty."

"When the court finds out the case and the lies are exposed, the price of food will at least rise back to thirty cents a catty."

The man was aggrieved, but when he was aggrieved, Lu Jianxing's heart stirred up waves.

Four hundred thousand taels of silver, counting the rest of the silver given to Hua by His Highness Fifth, he still has more than five hundred thousand taels in his hand.

In other words, within less than a month after leaving the capital, he had almost doubled the three hundred thousand taels.

This speed... is too slow!

It seems that the food business has driven Lu Jianxing crazy. In order to let Zhu Youjian see his value as soon as possible, Lu Jianxing gritted his teeth and confessed directly:

"Arrange people to find enough refugees, buy enough food in batches, and stock up all the food."

"In addition, Fei Ge passed on the letter and told the brothers in Fengyang and Jiangxi to buy all the money they have on hand and ship it to Huaibei!"

"The shopkeeper..." The man couldn't bear to say when he heard the words:

"Isn't this, earning the hard-earned money of the common people..."

Lu Jianxing was paused by what he said, but continued to drink tea in the next second:
"If we don't sell it, it will be sold by those illegal grain merchants. When the grain merchants raise their prices again, the people in Huaibei will suffer even more."

"If we sell it, we can earn money for His Highness and the court, and we can also ensure that the people in Huaibei have something to eat."

"Listen to me, let's do things..."

"This... yes!" The man showed a look of embarrassment, but after struggling, he went to work.

As for Lu Jianxing, after the man left, he also let out a long sigh.

In this way, under his arrangement, thousands of people were bought, and they went to several places in Huaibei in turn to buy grain, and then brought the grain back.

Among them, of course there will be people who enrich themselves, but Lu Jianxing turned a blind eye, perhaps to make atonement for the subsequent act of selling grain.

In just one day, Lu Jianxing bought thousands of shi of grain in Pizhou alone.

However, for the grain merchants, they had long thought that there would be people hoarding grain crazily after the famine. Although they felt that there were a lot of people buying grain, it was still within their acceptable range, so they did not check.

This kind of grain buying lasted for three days. Lu Jianxing had stockpiled [-] shi of grain in Pizhou, and more than [-] shi of grain in Huaibei.

If these grains are sold later, they can make a profit of [-] to [-] taels, or even millions of taels.

However, Lu Jianxing continued to transfer grain from other places. Just on the way from Fengyang Mansion to Huaibei, there were a total of [-] shi of grain on the way.

There are still more than [-] shi of grain on the waterway from Jiangxi to Huaibei.

Lu Jianxing made sufficient preparations, but what did not disappoint him was that on the morning of November [-], he received the news that Yang Lian and others had arrived thirty miles outside Pizhou City.

Not only did he get it, but Liu Bian, the prefect of Huai'an, also got the news, including the gentry and merchants gathered in Pizhou City from Huai'an Prefecture.

Yang Lian, a group of more than [-] officials and officials, including the Chief Officials Section and the Metropolitan Procuratorate, gradually appeared on the horizon under the protection of six hundred Jinyi Wei Tiqi.

Although Liu Bian, the magistrate of Huai'an at the head of the city, had made enough preparations, he still didn't know why, and felt a little weak for no reason.

All the gentry and merchants were waiting for his good news in Pizhou City. Yang Lian and Zuo Guangdou could not find out any news that would be unfavorable to Jiangnan Zhejiang Party, Xuan Party and Kunming Party.

Thinking of this, Liu Bian also said to the next Pizhou county magistrate:
"Get ready to meet the angels..."

"Yes!"

Angel, that is, the envoy of the Son of Heaven, has been a title that has been handed down since the Spring and Autumn Period.

Although Liu Bian didn't welcome Yang Lian and others, if he dared to neglect Angel, Yang Lian didn't need to impeach him as an official, and the officials of the Metropolitan Procuratorate would detain Liu Bian first.

So under the arrangement of Liu Bian, officials of all sizes from Pizhou City appeared at the Ding'anmen Gate of the North City of Pizhou City, and placed yellow cloths on the table and incense burners as tributes, waiting quietly for Yang Lian and others who came with the imperial decree.

And Yang Lian and others were also under the watchful eyes of the officials of Huai'an Mansion, together with Zuo Guangdou and Lu Wenzhao, they took the lead and led the team slowly.

After a stick of incense, the three of them arrived outside the Ding'an Gate, stepped across the moat, and took out the imperial decree...

"Fengtian Chengyun Emperor, the imperial edict said..."

As soon as he opened his mouth, Liu Bian and the others felt chilled.

The regulation of the imperial decree is very particular, especially the content.

Generally speaking, imperial edicts are divided into imperial edicts, edicts, and amnesties.

The imperial edict is an edict to the world, for example, important matters need to be announced to the subjects of the world, so this imperial edict is to explain to the people of the whole world, and the people can see it after the matter is settled.

Zhiyue is only for the purpose of announcing hundreds of officials, and it is not used for ordinary people, while pardoning day means that when the emperor rewards officials, he will warn officials not to be proud and complacent, so he uses pardoning day.

Right now, the imperial decree in Yang Lian's hand is an imperial edict at the beginning, so it is very simple to answer. Obviously, the matter of the Huaibei famine has received the emperor's attention, and after the matter is resolved, it will be announced to the world.

So after hearing the word Zhaoyue, Liu Bian and others felt guilty.

As for the content after the imperial decree, it was as expected.

The emperor first reprimanded the officials of Huai'an Mansion and Nanzhili, then he reprimanded the inspectors and supervisors of the Nanzhili Metropolitan Procuratorate, and finally talked about the thorough investigation of the Huaibei famine.

No accidents, wait for the results of the investigation, no matter what the final result is, the emperor will announce the matter to the world.

If there is no great famine in Huaibei, then tell the world to appease the hearts of the people. If there is a great famine in Huaibei, then you should kill, take, and provide disaster relief, and give the world an explanation.

In the anxiety of Liu Bian and others, Yang Lian finally finished reading the imperial decree, and did not send the imperial decree to Liu Bian and others, but put it away by himself.

This action shows that Yang Lian, Yang Lian and others do not trust the officials of Huai'an Prefecture.

"Liu Bian! As the magistrate of Huai'an Prefecture, and the parent official of the people in Huai'an, may I ask why the people in Huai'an Prefecture have delicious food all the way, but the villages are sparsely populated?!"

No one thought that Yang Lian didn't even enter the city, and directly scolded Liu Bian at the gate of the city.

Liu Bian was also taken aback, but he still pretended to be calm and replied:

"During the incident in Yangdu, the village was sparsely populated because most of the people were recruited by the government to build Huai'an roads and water conservancy channels along the way."

Liu Bian's arrangement had already started. Yesterday morning, he had asked all the gentry, merchants, and squires to send out their tenants to build roads and canals in various places in Huai'an Prefecture.

In those villages where the entire village died of illness and people died of starvation, the tenants were simply replaced by impostors, and they also remembered their identities and information.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, there were a large number of hidden populations, especially in the south of the Yangtze River.

Once the local gentry released their tenants, on the surface, Huai'an Prefecture had no shortage of people at all, but the business withered and the people's fields were abandoned.

But it is very simple to abandon the people's fields, just open the canals to release water, and flood the people's fields with water.

The people whose fields were flooded gave money to stop their mouths.

As for those hungry people, they didn't know why, and thought the government had taken action, and they are now grateful.

Thinking of this, Liu Bian couldn't help sneering in his heart.

check?I'll see what you can find out!
His upright, neither humble nor overbearing appearance made others look at him, and really thought he was a clean and honest official.

Lu Wenzhao frowned slightly, then turned around and walked behind, and his actions made Liu Bian terrified.

Jinyiwei...

Just three words can make people shudder. Liu Bian really doesn't know what Lu Wenzhao is going to do, but it doesn't affect his guilty conscience.

Seeing Lu Wenzhao move, Yang Lian yelled at him directly in order to cover him up:
"Since you said that the people build roads and water conservancy, let me ask you, how much rice do you have in the official warehouses of Huai'an Prefecture? Is there a famine in Huaibei? Is the government providing disaster relief?!"

Asking three times in a row was already expected by Liu Bian, so he responded:
"Returning to Yangdu, there are currently [-] shi in official warehouses in Pizhou County, Huai'an Prefecture, and [-] shi in Changping warehouses."

"There was a disaster in the Huaibei area, but in July, I was asked by the official to open a warehouse to relieve the disaster, and it subsided early."

It is not surprising that Yang Lian and the others can have so much food in Huai'an Mansion.

The taxation systems of previous dynasties were different. For example, in the Song Dynasty, all the taxes were collected from the national treasury and then distributed to the local governments, while in the Ming Dynasty, the local governments kept the "needed" part and then distributed it to the national treasury last time.

Therefore, the Huai'an government is capable of providing disaster relief on its own, but if the scale of the disaster really becomes larger, or there are corrupt officials who secretly resell the grain from the official warehouse, then it is another matter.

Thinking of this, Yang Lian said directly, "Go to Pizhou Guancang!"

"Yang Duge Shizhong, Zuoqian Du Yushi, this way please..." Liu Bian made a gesture of invitation, and then led Yang Lian and others to the "Changping Warehouse" in Pizhou County.

As for Lu Wenzhao at this time, he also found Shen Lian who was hiding in the crowd, and confessed:
"Go to your elder brother and ask the matter clearly."

"Don't worry, Master Tongzhi!" Shen Lian saluted, and then ran into an alley while entering Pizhou City.

His actions had long been seen by the people arranged by the gentry and merchants, and all the people wandering around the city gate followed him in his direction.

It's just that they had just set off when Lu Jianxing, who was in a residential building, grabbed his waist knife and said coldly, "Let's go!"

"Ugh..."

As soon as he opened his mouth, the sound of the flute was blown, and some Jin Yiwei hidden in the crowd also obstructed the group of people. When Shen Lian heard the sound of the flute, he also knew that someone was following him.

He just turned a few corners, then turned over and jumped into a residential house, and the people arranged by the gentry and businessmen lost his trace.

This group of people ran around in the alleys like headless chickens, and those with a bad temper directly slapped the door to check people.

When they searched for people, Shen Lian had circled several times, and finally climbed over the wall and entered a residential house, and saw Lu Jianxing sitting in the small courtyard of the residential house.

"Brother." Shen Lian got up and relaxed his guard, while Lu Jianxing also nodded, then took out a piece of thick paper and said:

"What happened is written on it and the evidence is mapped."

"As long as we have these evidences, the corrupt officials in Huai'an Mansion will not be able to escape."

Seeing this, Shen Lian quickly put the thick paper into his arms, and then asked Lu Jianxing: "The things His Highness entrusted to us..."

"Don't worry, most of the things are done, and the remaining half will not be too long." Lu Jianxing said with confidence:

"If this matter is done, maybe you and I will be promoted to Qianhu and Baihu in advance!"

"En!" Hearing this, Shen Lian nodded, and Lu Jianxing also patted him and said:

"Hurry up and get things done, don't let the adults wait too long, it will change sooner or later."

"Okay!" Hearing this, Shen Lian changed his clothes, turned around and walked out of the residence, and then rushed towards Changping warehouse.

As for Lu Jianxing, he said to the nearby houses after he left:
"There is not much time, tell our people to collect food quickly!"

As soon as the words fell, the thin man walked out of the residence, and after making a salute, he took people to continue collecting grain.

He also calmed down about what Lu Jianxing did before, because if Lu Jianxing really only wanted to make money, then he could delay the news for a few days, let Yang Lian and the others wait a few more days, and give him a few more days to collect food time.

But right now, as soon as Yang Lian and the others came, Lu Jianxing handed over the information, so there was no such thing as profit-inducing.

But what he didn't know was that after he left, Lu Jianxing frowned secretly as he watched his leaving back, and the corner of his mouth couldn't help a smile.

As for the thin man, after arranging for people to collect food, he rushed to a residential house not far away by himself.

He knocked on the door three times, two short and one long, and soon the door opened with a "squeak", and the person who opened the door was a young man who looked carefree.

The thin man walked into the yard, and the young man also closed the door. After the two entered, people came out from the main room and the side room, led by a man with a handsome face and a slender frame.

"Lu Xian, how did he do it?"

As soon as the man opened his mouth, he asked the thin man and called out his name.

When Lu Xian heard the words, the editor responded: "He directly handed over all the evidence, and asked him to sworn brothers and gave it to Yang Du to Shizhong."

"That's fine..." The man nodded, then looked at the idle young man next to him and said:

"Lu Xiu, you don't have to follow us anymore, go and protect Yang Duge and Zuoqian Du Yushi next to Senior Brother."

"Me?" Hearing this, the careless Lu Xiu pointed to his nose, and then said helplessly, "Yes..."

After all, he didn't open the door, just turned over the wall and jumped out.

"Don't leave if there is a door... and climb over the wall..." Lu Xian looked at Lu Xiu's leaving back with the eyes of a strange person, and then said to the man:

"Master, now I..."

"You continue to follow Lu Jianxing. If he is greedy for His Highness's money, send the news back as soon as possible." The man said softly, and Lu Xian responded after seeing this, and returned to Lu Jianxing according to his words.

As for Lu Xiu, relying on his quick steps, he ran into Jin Yiwei's team halfway, but the Qi family knife on his waist was a bit conspicuous.

When Lu Wenzhao saw him coming, he also asked in a low voice, "How is it?"

"Master, don't worry, the news is correct and there are no mistakes."

"That's fine..." Hearing this, Lu Wenzhao felt relieved, and after a while, Jin Yiwei's troops escorted Yang Lian, Zuo Guangdou, officials from the Li Ke and the Metropolitan Procuratorate to the Guancang and Changzhou in Pizhou. Close the door.

Guancang and Changpingcang are the two sides of the street, Yang Lian looked at Zuo Guangdou: "Yizhi, you go to Changpingcang, I will look at Guancang."

"Okay!" Zuo Guangdou nodded, and then led half of the people from the Metropolitan Procuratorate and the Li Ke into the Changping warehouse, while Yang Lian led the rest into the official warehouse.

Lu Xiu followed Yang Lian into the official warehouse, while Lu Wenzhao turned around and glanced at Liu Bian and the others, then said loudly:
"Surround me around the official warehouse and Changping warehouse!"

"Yes!" As soon as the words were spoken, the six hundred brocade guards acted immediately, and even the common people wandering around suddenly took off their clothes, revealing the crimson uniforms with the goose feather swords on them.

At this moment, the Jinyiwei around broke through a thousand people, and the sudden change made Liu Bian and others tremble...

　There should be two updates tomorrow, not sure about Sunday the day after tomorrow.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)